What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams?

Hi, Grandmaof2. I don't know the difference and I wish I did. So thank you for starting this discussion. Maybe we both will learn something.

I have often wondered that too, hehe. They look the same. They taste good when you bake them with lots of brown sugar. Other then that I don't know much about them. Maybe with this post we will both get an education about sweet potatoes.

I love sweet potatoes which are sweeter than yams. I boil them, mashed, casseroles all different ways. Here is a link to one of the many websites that describe the differences http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sweetpotato.html

They taste the same, but sweet potatoes are tubers and yams are not. The trouble is that up here in Canada, they call sweet potatoes yams. http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm The ones to the right are sweet potatoes, the brown one is a yam. They can be interchantged in cooking. We hardly see any real yams here in Winnipeg, unless in a speciality market and I think they can be used the same. I have not tasted a real yam yet, but heard they are sweeter than sweet potatoes.

I have often wandered the same thing. they look the same to me. This is what I found though. What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Although yams and sweet potatoes are both angiosperms (flowering plants), they are not related botanically. Yams are a monocot (a plant having one embryonic seed leaf) and from the Dioscoreaceae or Yam family. Sweet Potatoes, often called ‘yams’, are a dicot (a plant having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family. Yams Yams are closely related to lilies and grasses. Native to Africa and Asia, yams vary in size from that of a small potato to a record 130 pounds (as of 1999). There are over 600 varieties of yams and 95% of these crops are grown in Africa. Compared to sweet potatoes, yams are starchier and drier. Sweet Potatoes The many varieties of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the morning glory family, Convolvulacea. The skin color can range from white to yellow, red, purple or brown. The flesh also ranges in color from white to yellow, orange, or orange-red. Sweet potato varieties are classified as either ‘firm’ or ‘soft’. When cooked, those in the ‘firm’ category remain firm, while ‘soft’ varieties become soft and moist. It is the ‘soft’ varieties that are often labeled as yams in the United States. Why the confusion? In the United States, firm varieties of sweet potatoes were produced before soft varieties. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, there was a need to differentiate between the two. African slaves had already been calling the ‘soft’ sweet potatoes ‘yams’ because they resembled the yams in Africa. Thus, ‘soft’ sweet potatoes were referred to as ‘yams’ to distinguish them from the ‘firm’ varieties. Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term ‘yam’ to be accompanied by the term ‘sweet potato.’ Unless you specifically search for yams, which are usually found in an international market, you are probably eating sweet potatoes! http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sweetpotato.html

Yams are sweeter in taste and the sweet potatoes are sweet, but not as the yams.. I have always wondered the same thing too. There is an difference in the taste of them.. Great discussion! You made me think!

I was told that Sweet potatoes are higher in fiber and other nutrition then Yams. Yam --nutritional info http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2726/2 Sweet potatoes http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2667/2

I always thought they were the same but they are really not.Here's what I discovered. Sweet Potatoes Popular in the American South, these yellow or orange tubers are elongated with ends that taper to a point and are of two dominant types. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called "yam" in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture. Current popular sweet potato varieties include Goldrush, Georgia Red, Centennial, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, and Velvet. Yams The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine (Dioscorea batatas) and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. Slowly becoming more common in US markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets, with over 150 varieties available worldwide. Generally sweeter than than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length. The word yam comes from African words njam, nyami, or djambi, meaning "to eat," and was first recorded in America in 1676. The yam tuber has a brown or black skin which resembles the bark of a tree and off-white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety. They are at home growing in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Yams contain more natural sugar than sweet potatoes and have a higher moisture content. They are also marketed by their Spanish names, boniato and ñame.

Don't sweet potatoes have a yellowy flesh whereas yams are orange?

It's funny you should start a discussion about this! last week at work we were discussing the same thing and guess what? No one knows! LOL....I'll check some of the responses and see if I learn something new today.

I don't really think there is much of a difference, they both kinda taste the same to me, but I really don't eat them that often, only around the holiday season.

Whether the supermarket calls them sweet potatoes or yams, here on our American continent, what we buy are sweet potatoes. Yams are different. Also the yam sometimes listed as an ingredient in soba noodles is sweet potato. As stephcjh mentioned real yams are mostly found in African and Asia and they are huge and often made into flour, being dier and not as sweet as the tubers our supermarkets often call yams.

I also wondered this myself. I think I will also go to FITDAY.com and look up the carb counts of each.

There's is not that much difference in them of what I know one is sweeyer than the other that all. cd

I have always thought they were the same...It might be the shape of them.......I ask my Mom that same thing once & my Mom said they were basically the same except one one more round & the other was more long & thin..The taste is the same and i really think most people call them by both names...

This is a great discussion. I didn't know the difference between the two and went to the link that whiteheather39 had on her response. Learn something new everyday. I always thought that the two names were for the same thing. Glad I read your discussion and the responses that were made to it.